Yatseniuk: Ukraine allows firms to import electricity due to power crisis

Ukraine, mired in a power crisis due to a thermal coal shortage, will allow all companies to import electricity, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said on Friday as he urged consumers to save energy.
Ukraine used to be self-sufficient in coal, but months of fighting has halted production at more than half of the country’s mines, disrupting supplies to thermal power plants that usually generate 40 percent of the country’s power.
«The reasons are … blocked deliveries of coal purchased in Russiaand blocked supplies of coal that belong to Ukraine, but are now in the territory temporarily controlled by Russian terrorists,» Yatseniuk said a televised statement.
Earlier this month the government asked state energy firms to consider importing electricity, but the companies failed to sign any agreements, Yatseniuk said.
The country has electricity connections with Russia, Moldova, Belarus and the Baltic states.
Yatseniuk said Ukraine was not able to access around 3 million tonnes of Ukrainian coal stored in pits in the east.
Some 20 power units across Ukraine have been idled due to the lack of coal and the latest data shows coal reserves at plants have fallen by more than four percent this week.
Total stocks at power plants now stand at 1.35 million tonnes, compared with 4 million at the same point last year, according to state-run energy firm Ukrenergo.
The idled units account for around 10 percent of Ukraine’s total power capacity. The resulting electricity shortages have forced the company to impose power restrictions across the country.
«I demand from the ministry and local authorities to stop lighting billboards, government buildings, central streets at a time when the whole country is in darkness,» Yatseniuk said.
He added that power restrictions could also be imposed on rebel regions.

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